Rhetorical Devices
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Anaphora
Anaphora (an-NAF-ruh): Figure of
repetition that occurs when the first
word or set of words in one
sentence, clause, or phrase is/are
repeated at or very near the
beginning of successive sentences,
clauses, or phrases; repetition of the
initial word(s) over successive
phrases or clauses.
Anaphora example
• "What we need in the United States is not
division. What we need in the United States is
not hatred. What we need in the United States is
not violence and lawlessness; but is love and
wisdom and compassion toward one another,
and a feeling of justice toward those who still
suffer within our country whether they be white
or whether they be black."
• -- Robert F. Kennedy, Announcing the death of
Martin Luther King
Epistrophe (eh-PISS-truh-FEE):
• Figure of repetition that occurs when the last
word or set of words in one sentence, clause,
or phrase is repeated one or more times at
the end of successive sentences, clauses, or
phrases.
Epistrophe example
• "I said you're afraid to bleed. [As] long as the
white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He
sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to
the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you
bled. You bleed for white people. But when it
comes time to seeing your own churches
being bombed and little black girls be[ing]
murdered, you haven't got no blood."
• -- Malcolm X, Message to the Grassroots
Another example
• "Booze sold to a preacher or a high school girl
has the same effect as when it's sold to an
automobile thief, or a horse thief."
• -- Billy Sunday, Booze
Antithesis
• Antithesis (an-TIH-theh-sis): Figure of balance
in which two contrasting ideas are
intentionally juxtaposed, usually through
parallel structure; a contrasting of opposing
ideas in adjacent phrases, clauses, or
sentences.
Antithesis Example
• Ex: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot
keep to gain that which he cannot lose"
• -- Jim Elliot
• Ex: Lloyd Braun: "Serenity now; insanity later."
• -- from Seinfeld episode "The Serenity Now"
Antithesis Example
• "I have a dream that my four little children will
one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the
content of their character. I have a dream
today!" -- Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a
Dream
Antithesis Example
• "...although the surface appears to be...very,
very fine-grained as you get close to it. It's
almost like a powder...Okay, I'm going to step
off the LEM now. That's one small step for [a]
man; one giant leap for mankind." -- Neil
Armstrong, Apollo 11 Moon Landing Speech
Asyndeton
• Asyndeton (a-SIN-dih-tawn): Figure of
omission in which normally occurring
conjunctions (and, or, but, for, nor, so, yet) are
intentionally omitted in successive phrases, or
clauses; a string of words not separated by
normally occurring conjunctions.
Asyndeton example
• "Be one of the few, the proud, the Marines." –
Marine Corps Advertisement
• - "When we listen to the better angels of our
nature, we find that they celebrate the simple
things, the basic things -- such as goodness,
decency, love, kindness." -- Richard Nixon,
Inaugural Address
Polysyndeton
• Polysyndeton (paulee-SIN-dih-tawn): Figure of
addition and emphasis which intentionally
employs a series of conjunctions (and, or, but,
for, nor, so, yet) not normally found in
successive words, phrases, or clauses; the
deliberate and excessive use of conjunctions
in successive words or clauses.
Polysyndeton example
• Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war -- not
history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor
the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor
ideas, nor kinds of government -- not any
other thing. We are the killers." -- delivered by
Katherine Hepburn (from the movie The Lion
in Winter)
Parallelism
• Parallelism: Figure of balance identified by a
similarity in the syntactical structure of a set
of words in successive phrases, clauses,
sentences; successive words, phrases, clauses
with the same or very similar grammatical
structure. This figure often occurs public
address with others such as antithesis,
anaphora, asyndeton, climax.
Parallelism example
action verb, adj. any, direct object
• "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us
well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear
any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival
and the success of liberty."
• -- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
Parallelism example
• "We have seen the state of our Union in the
endurance of rescuers, working past
exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of flags,
the lighting of candles, the giving of blood,
the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew,
and Arabic."
• George W. Bush, 9-20-01 Address to the
Nation on Terrorism
Parallelism with Anaphora
• "We have petitioned and our petitions have been
scorned. We have entreated and our entreaties have
been disregarded. We have begged and they have
mocked when our calamity came. We beg no longer.
We entreat no more. We petition no more. We defy
them." -- William Jennings Bryan
• Note here that the first three sentences comprise the
first parallelism used in conjunction with anaphora.
The the next three sentences constitute a second
parallelism also in conjunction with anaphora.
Paradox
• –noun 1. a statement or proposition that
seems self-contradictory or absurd but in
reality expresses a possible truth.
• 2. a self-contradictory and false proposition.
• 3. any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an
apparently contradictory nature.
• 4. an opinion or statement contrary to
commonly accepted opinion.
Paradox
• "When I seem fullest, I'm often hungry."
• What is the hidden truth behind this paradox?
• Standing is more tiring than walking.
litotes
• li-to'-tees from Gk litos, "plain, small, meagre" Also sp.
lyptote, liptoteantenantiosis
diminutio (deminutio), extenuatiothe moderatour
•
Deliberate understatement, especially when expressing a
thought by denying its opposite. The Ad Herennium author
suggests litotes as a means of expressing modesty
(downplaying one's accomplishments) in order to gain the
audience's favor (establishing ethos).
• Examples It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on
the brain. —J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Litotes
More examples
• understatement, esp. that in which an
affirmative is expressed by the negative of its
contrary, as in “not bad at all.”
• Simple examples:
• Not bad.
• I do not find the offer to be unattractive.
• Running a marathon in under two hours is no
small accomplishment
Litotes
More examples
• "I was not a little surprised," would be litotes,
especially if we knew the speaker had
practically jumped out of his skin, because the
speaker was the opposite of a little
surprised. So litotes does not HAVE to be a
double negative, but it does have to be the
opposite of the opposite.
• litotes is a type of understatement, but it is more
specific. In litotes you must deny the opposite of the
thing being affirmed.
• "Einstein is not stupid," is litotes. (What is being
affirmed is that he is smart, and that statement
denies ("not") the opposite (stupid).
• "Einstein is a pretty smart guy," is merely an
understatement.
• Litotes is "a form of ironical understatement that affirms
something be stating the negative of its opposite. For
example, to say 'She is no fool' instead of "She is shrewd" is to
use litotes. Meiosis, a near synonym, employs
understatement to give the idea that something is less
important or smaller than it really is: 'That was a pretty good
movie.'" (from NTC's Dictionary of Literary Terms by Kathleen
Morner and Ralph Rausch)
Meiosis example: "A nuclear weapon attack puts a damper on
a nice luncheon," would be meiosis.
Chiasmus
• chi·as·mus
• kaɪˈæz məs/ [kahy-az-muh s]
• a reversal in the order of words in two
otherwise parallel phrases, as in “He went to
the country, to the town went she.”
• A rhetorical inversion of the second of two
parallel structures
Chiasmus Example
• "Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you."
Epithet
• Source: Abrams's Glossary of Literary Terms
• "EPITHET ... denotes an adjective or adjectival
phrase used to define the special quality of a
person or thing... Homeric epithets are
adjectival terms – usually a compound of two
words... We often use fixed, or 'conventional'
epithets in identifying historical or literary
figures; for example, Charles the Great,
Lorenzo the Magnificent, Patient Griselda"
Epithet examples…
• Examples: Richard the Lion-Hearted, wily
Odysseus, prudent Penelope, Crooner Sinatra,
Alexander the Great, Orphan Annie, The
Windy City, etc.
• Othello, the Moor of Venice”
• Kilimanjaro “The Cold One” and “The Big
One.”
• BEOWULF = the Geats' king
Epithet
• Equiano’s slave narrative
• Nominal Christians
• Epithet applies if the word or phrase is used as
an adjective to characterize the person or
thing: "Poseidon, Earthshaker" or "wine-dark
sea." These are often repeated throughout the
work, especially in epic poetry
example of antimetabole in
• "Although we are what we do, what we do is
not all that we are." Kathleen Parker's column
5/12/10
• "Nothing works, but everything might work."
(spoken about education)Diane Ravitch
• Appositive applies if the sentence has a noun
or noun phrase that explains or renames a
noun in a sentence (it could actually take the
place of the noun): "Denver, the capital of
Colorado" or "the dragonfly, an insect with
applies if the
gossamer wingsAppositive
and greedy
appetite, is often
misunderstood."
•